Catacombs
aka Gamestape 3 Reviews Summary C+VG Issue 7 Prowling around the Catacombs in search of gold you suddenly come across an evil looking monster — will you get the gold before the monster gets you? The aim of Catacombs is to find as much gold as possible before you run out of food of are caught by one of a variety of creatures. It runs on a ZX81 in 16K. Keys 1 to 8 move you in the direction indicated on the keys — 1 to 4 move you diagonally Keys 5 to 8 with shift enable you to tunnel, but beware, this uses up a lot of your food. As you move a series of rooms and passages will unfold, these may contain food, gold, monsters or nothing at all. There is always an exit to be found on each level if things get tough. The exit takes you to a different level, which provides a breathing space while the ZX sets this up. When meeting a monster you can run away, but it will follow. An excellent addictive game which will keep you amused for hours. For £4.95 it is certainly worth adding to your collection, but be prepared for a struggle when loading — certainly the most troublesome that I have encountered. Catacombs comes from J. K. Greye Software. Your Computer Issue 10 Writer: Eric Deeson Greye's Catacomb, Games 3, is described as a multi-level graphics adventure. The adventure approach is unexceptional and the graphics adequate. As one wanders through the catacomb one discovers more and more of the maze with its various attackers and rewards. The attacks are not under keyboard control so survival is a matter of luck. Each time you play, you are given a new layout. Sinclair User Issue 3 Writer: Phil Garratt Catacombs from J K Greye is an all-graphics-real time game. There is no chance of having a think about where to go next on this one, as your strength steadily drops whether or not you are doing anything. As you move around using the standard cursor controls, the surrounding area is revealed. Each level of the catacombs is made up of a random set of inter-connected rooms containing random amounts of food, F. gold, £, and monsters, O for Orc, D for Dragon. Depending on your strength you can either fight the monsters or run away and, if necessary, you can even tunnel through the walls. The program is written in Basic and 2K of machine code. Despite the machine code, the game takes more than two minutes to set up. Something else to watch for is the Exit, X. If you go through it you have a two-minute wait for the next level to be set up. This is a nicely-done graphics game with your strength and score, the amount of gold you have amassed, shown on-screen. At £5.95 it is a little expensive and would be greatly improved if the setting-up could be converted to machine code, since beginners may find the setting-up lasts longer than the game. Personal Computing Today Issue 1 Writer: PF “You are alone and lost in the catacombs, how much gold can you find, and how long can you survive?” This game doesn't come up to some of the other adventure games now available. Keys 1-8 move you in the direction indicated on the keys (1-4 diagonally as shown by the graphics character on the keys). The rooms and passages only appear as you move into them and you may find food, gold or monsters. If you beat the monsters or find food, your strength is incremented. You may try to run away from the monsters but they will follow you. Try tunnelling to escape them by shifting keys 5-8. Although acquired skill will help you, the result of a battle with a monster seems a little too random, and the novice gets killed a little too quickly to gain much skill at each attempt. This brings us to the major disturbing factor of this program; once LOADed, the game will automatically RUN and will then take roughly two minutes in FAST mode (with the screen a complete blank) to set up each level. Unfortunately, to the novice it appears that the computer is spending more time setting the stage than the player is playing! We are told that there are an infinite number of levels but also that there is an exit on each level! Category:ZX81 Games Category:J.K. Greye Software Category:C+VG Reviews Category:Your Computer Reviews Category:Sinclair User Reviews Category:Personal Computing Today Reviews